Wearable and other small, portable devices commonly use battery power. More recently, energy scavenger devices (also known as “energy harvesters”), which generate energy from the environment, have become more widely used to power small devices. Kinetic energy scavenger devices have become particularly popular due to their broad applicability to various energy sources, such automobiles, buildings, and human bodies.
Many kinetic energy scavenger devices, however, rely on high frequency and predictable motion. For example, automobile tires often have energy scavenger devices to capture the kinetic motion of the moving automobile wheels. This energy powers MEMS pressure sensors that transmit tire pressure readings to the central computer of the automobile. As such, energy scavenger devices in tires typically capture the energy at relatively high frequencies and with generally known directions/motion.
The random, low frequency motion of a person (e.g., a person jogging) or object, however, presents certain challenges that such noted energy scavenger devices have difficulty addressing.